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cat will display any file to the display, but if it is not a text file it
can cause your terminal to display unusual character combinations. /var is
a directory, not a text file.
Sometimes resetting the terminal may clear this, but not always.
It is much better to try not to use cat on files that are not text or
commands like a script.
To check what kind of file it is type:
file filename or wildcard.

That also happens when you try to cat a binary file (i.e a non-text file) and it
screws up the term emulation. When that happened I'd log out of the server and
unplug the serial connection (if that's what you're using) and then plug it back in again.

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